The company which operated the toxic waste dump, exceeded all local,
state, and federal standards of the time by a wide margin. In fact,
they (what was it, 50 years ago?) exceeded most *modern* local, state,
and federal standards by a wide margin. They could, with only minor
variation, repeat that operation *today* with only one difficulty --
that being, at the time they didn't require a special permit to do
better than the law requires.

They made a *bundle* off their self-imposed stringent standards.

Then the government (specifically the local school district) came in,
ignored restrictive covenants on land deeds, ignored explicit warnings
from the company which were presented both privately and in public,
and tore into the dump with heavy construction equipment in several
locations.

The conclusion is obvious: if you want to contain pollution, you're
going to have to *reduce* the power and authority of government.